The Little Things
by cherii tomato
Summary: Of the quirky little things they do and each other's funny little habits they can't help but love. A series of interconnected oneshots. #1-His scent.


**A senseless little drabble-y oneshot. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice and its characters,  
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><p>His Scent<p>

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><p>He didn't exactly give it any attention at first. But when he did, he was annoyed.<p>

The first time she did it, he thought it was alright, nothing to be worked up about. The second time she did it, still nothing. The third, the fourth, he let them all slide. Heck, he barely even noticed it.

But when she did it for the umpteenth time, they were out for dinner with Ruka and Hotaru. She had requested to go to the bathroom and the two girls went away, leaving the two men at the table.

He raised an eyebrow when Ruka leaned across the table towards him, his expression was perplexed. Natsume leaned back into his chair, arms crossed. "What?"

"Did you notice that Mikan was doing something funny the whole night?"

Natsume replayed the night in his mind. They arrived at the restaurant; Hotaru made a joke about him, he retort with a smart-ass reply, Imai shot back with a sharp reply, Ruka tried to calm things down while Mikan snapped at the both of them, effectively silencing the two bickering grownups; they ordered their meals, Mikan going with her usual grilled salmon with risotto on the side; she talked—loudly—and laughed, also loudly; she was in a pretty good mood, to sum it all up. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

He frowned, shook his head and shrugged. "I don't recall."

"Natsume," Ruka began in a patronizing tone, a tone one would use for a three-year-old. And Natsume certainly didn't enjoy being regarded as a three-year-old. So he smacked the blonde on his head and grumbled, "Don't talk to me in that tone."

"Sorry," Ruka apologized, "but as I was saying, are you _positively sure_ that everything's normal? Are you _sure_?"

"I don't see anything wrong."

"_Sure_?"

Natsume nodded.

"_Really_ sure?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"_Positively sure_?"

This time, Ruka was given a glare. Through gritted teeth, Natsume said. "Get to your point, Nogi."

Ruka put up his hands in surrender, knowing that his best friend's miniscule temper was running out. "Hotaru and I couldn't help but realise that Mikan kept—" he paused for effect, "—_smelling_ you."

The firecaster sat in his seat and blinked. "What?"

"Y'know, smell, sniff." Ruka raised an arm and made a show of sniffing his sleeve.

"Yeah I know what's the meaning of smelling, Ruka. But," Natsume snapped at his friend and frowned, "are you sure?"

"Yes I am, Natsume. I am positively, absolutely, one hundred and ten per cent sure that Mikan Sakura, your girlfriend was constantly sniffing you. Which is somewhat strange."

Natsume looked at his friend for a moment before cocking his head to a side to smell his shirt, then his sleeves, then the inside of his shirt.

"Huh, I guess I do smell good."

Ruka had to stop himself from a session of eye-rolling at the firecaster's narcissism.

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><p>After Ruka had <em>oh so courteously<em> pointed out his girlfriend's little habit, Natsume was more aware of her actions. Not that it was a good thing.

It was driving him nuts.

They were sitting on his couch, curled up together with the TV on. Natsume had his arm around Mikan's shoulder while the girl had buried her face into his chest. And every ten minutes, he could hear her taking a good whiff from him.

He felt his vein twitching every time.

Sniff.

Twitch.

…

Sniff.

Twitch.

…

Sniff.

Twitch twitch.

…

Sniff.

Twitch.

…

Sniff.

"Okay that's enough."

He retracted his arms from her and pushed the girl a few inches away from him. Mikan stared at him, wide-eyed.

"What," he began, "are you doing?"

She continued to stare at him innocently with her head cocked to aside. "What are you talking about?"

"You kept sniffing me, Mikan. Care to explain?"

The brunette shrugged and pulled a pillow to her chest. "I wanted to know how you smell like for now."

"For now?" Natsume grabbed the controller on the table, then he switched off the TV. "What do you mean 'for now'?"

"Well, you smell differently every time."

Natsume gave her an incredulous look. "I do?"

The brunette nodded. "Actually, you have quite a number of scents. Pretty interesting. Currently," she said and leaned over to him before inhaling deeply, "you smell like what you usually smell like, this smoky, ashen scent. Something like your 'default scent'."

"Huh." Was the only word he could say. "And do tell me what are my other scents?"

Mikan looked towards the ceiling, mentally counting the scents she'd had sniffed from him. "There's your default ash-and-smoke scent; you smell like mint and aftershave after cleaning up in the morning; sometimes you smell like your car; of course, you smell like your cologne when you put it on and also you smell like coffee sometimes."

"Ash and smoke?" Natsume sniffed his shirt, his palms and got nothing. "Are you sure?"

Mikan nodded. "Damn sure. Probably from your Alice." And then she leaned over, wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's waist before burying her face into his neck. "You smell _really_ good…"

Natsume kissed the top of Mikan's head softly and took in the scent of her shampoo he had become so familiar with. Strawberries and vanilla. "You're not that bad either, polka."

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><p>Five hours and two movies later, Mikan who had her mouth filled with cheese nachos spoke in a muffled voice. "Ish funny."<p>

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Natsume commented drily, eyes still trained onto the TV as Eames materializes a grenade launcher from thin air, "and what's funny?"

"Accor'in to shome research, women are more attracted to men who shmell like 'oast beef."

A period of silence pass by between them before Natsume broke it. He paused the movie. "You don't even like roast beef."

The girl stuffed a handful of nachos into her mouth before munching loudly, ignoring Natsume's chiding. "True. But perhaps it might shmell good on y'."

"Are you suggesting that I use roast-beef flavoured cologne?"

She shrugged and winked playfully. "Why not?"

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><p>Mikan sniffed at Natsume and she had to run to the toilet immediately. The contents of her stomach were emptied into the toilet bowl.<p>

She groaned with her head still in the bowl, arms held tight to the sides. "Now I remember why I hate roast beef."

Natsume looked at the tiny vial of scented water and scrunched up his face in disgust. Even he, a meat-lover since birth, had to admit that the thing was vile and disgusting.

"People," he mumbled before tossing the entire glass bottle into the trashcan.

Only to belatedly realise that he had forgotten to screw the cap on tightly as five horus later, his entire apartment was shrouded in the sickening artificial scent of roast beef.

"Until this whole thing clears up," Mikan said with her nose pinched. She was holding onto a luggage, packed with a week's worth of clothing. "I'm staying over at Hotaru's." And slammed the door behind her.

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><p><strong>GARCA! WOOHOO! Link on my profile. :P<strong>


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